Session:「Tools for Designing」

Towards Design Principles for Visual Analytics in Operations Contexts

論文アブストラクト：
Operations engineering teams interact with complex data systems to make technical decisions that ensure the operational efficacy of their missions. To support these decision-making tasks, which may require elastic prioritization of goals dependent on changing conditions, custom analytics tools are often developed. We were asked to develop such a tool by a team at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where rover telecom operators make decisions based on models predicting how much data rovers can transfer from the surface of Mars. Through research, design, implementation, and informal evaluation of our new tool, we developed principles to inform the design of visual analytics systems in operations contexts. We offer these principles as a step towards understanding the complex task of designing these systems. The principles we present are applicable to designers and developers tasked with building analytics systems in domains that face complex operations challenges such as scheduling, routing, and logistics.

Methods for Intentional Encoding of High Capacity Human-Designable Visual Markers

論文アブストラクト：
Previous techniques for human-designable visual markers have focused on small encoding spaces, and assume artists do not need to encode specific bit representations. We present a general framework for human-designable visual markers for artists to encode specific bit representations in large spaces. A three-part study, conducted over three weeks, methodically evaluates the usability of different encoding methods when artists encode specific bit representations. The methods span different shape characteristics suitable for artist encoding (convexity, hollowness, number, size, and distance from centroid) and visualization tools are proposed to aid in this process. We further demonstrate that any of the methods presented may be practically used to encode a URL with the aid of a universally available database like TinyURL (rather than a task-specific database), making human-designable visual markers practical for applications such as advertisements.

Rewire: Interface Design Assistance from Examples

論文アブストラクト：
Interface designers often use screenshot images of example designs as building blocks for new designs. Since images are unstructured and hard to edit, designers typically reconstruct screenshots with vector graphics tools in order to reuse or edit parts of the design. Unfortunately, this reconstruction process is tedious and slow. We present Rewire, an interactive system that helps designers leverage example screenshots. Rewire automatically infers a vector representation of screenshots where each UI component is a separate object with editable shape and style properties. Based on this representation, the system provides three design assistance modes that help designers reuse or redraw components of the example design. The results from our quantitative and user evaluations demonstrate that Rewire can generate accurate vector representations of interface screenshots found in the wild and that design assistance enables users to reconstruct and edit example designs more efficiently compared to a baseline design tool.

c.light: A Tool for Exploring Light Properties in Early Design Stage

論文アブストラクト：
Although a light becomes an important design element, there are little techniques available to explore shapes and light effects in early design stages. We present c.light, a design tool that consists of a set of modules and a mobile application for visualizing the light in a physical world. It allows designers to easily fabricate both tangible and intangible properties of a light without a technical barrier. We analyzed how c.light contributes to the ideation process of light design through a workshop. The results showed that c.light largely expands designers' capability to manipulate intangible properties of light and, by doing so, it facilitates collaborative and inverted ideation process in early design stages. It is expected that the results of this study could enhance our understanding of how designers manipulate light in a physical world in early design stages and could be a good stepping stone for future tool development.